It is still available in China, but not for much longer, hence the announcement.

No, it is owned and managed by an Irish company which happens to have only one share holder which is an American company.

The directors of Microsoft Operations Ireland Ltd are obliged to follow Irish law, not US law. The US parent company could vote them out of office at the next AGM of the Irish company, but if they were sacked for refusing to comply with Irish law, they would have a claim against the company for wrongful dismissal.

Windows $[4+4]

Provided you don't get Carbon Monoxide poisoning from a faulty heating system for example. In England, I know that if there is a problem with that, I contact the local council's Environmental Health department, not the police, if there is a problem with that. I've no idea what the rules are in other countries were I go on holiday.

Because the sort of things you see on sale in Best Buy in the US are the sort of things you can only find in museums in the UK. Things like stove-top kettles and top-loading washing machines.

Two things, if the police catch an active criminal, it stops them from committing more crimes in the future. Secondly, people are less likely to commit crimes if they think there is a good chance they will be caught.

It does support adblock. Don't know about the other things as I hardly ever use it.

If the collect payments for the service using the Chinese banking system, then the Chinese government can use their normal legal channels to get the data they want.

The GPL guarantees that you have those freedoms, public domain does not.

Vodafone certainly did, and when I sent those recordings to the Telecommunication Ombudsman, they ruled in my favour.

Public domain gives you Freedom 0 (the right to run the software), and Freedom 2 (the right to copy and distribute it), but not Freedom 1 (the right to study how the software works) or Freedom 3 (the right to modify it).

Yes it would. RMS invented the GPL because of copyright issues, and before software patents became a problem.

Pointy Haired Boss - http://www.dilbert.com/

If you turn off some of the animation stuff that has been added in iOS 7, it is fine.